Sound Tigers put it together in defensive zone

Michael Fornabaio

Published 12:15 am, Friday, February 28, 2014

BRIDGEPORT -- Part of it may be a simple coming-of-age story. Some comes from familiarity, knowing your teammates and communicating.

And goaltending and help from the forwards are essential for a team in the defensive zone. But wherever it has come from, through the Bridgeport Sound Tigers' hot streak, they've slashed their goals against by almost one a night.

"Guys are getting a little more comfortable every day. There's a lot of (comfort) and confidence," said Matt Donovan, who as a third-year pro has been one of the team's more experienced defensemen.

"We're getting better as a group every day."

Bridgeport has won 11 of its past 13 games, including the past six. In the 41 games before the hot streak, not counting bonus goals awarded for shootout wins, Bridgeport was outscored 133-98. In these 13 games, the Sound Tigers have outscored opponents 47-30.

"We're staying tight," said Aaron Ness, another third-year pro. "We're putting more pressure on forwards all over the ice."

Though Bridgeport sent its top forward line to the NHL on Monday, it has been getting healthier on the blue line, getting Joe Finley and Andrey Pedan back from long-term injuries in the past couple of weeks.

Some younger players, even some who were sent back to the ECHL, have shown improvement.

"Good stick position, good gaps, getting up in the play: We've harped on it," coach Scott Pellerin said. "You see defensemen kind of hit their stride later than forwards because it's a very difficult position to play."

It's just as well, Pellerin said, for a defenseman to keep his game simple. When Pellerin was coaching with Manchester, he said, Los Angeles Kings director of pro development Mike O'Connell projected video onto a whiteboard of a shift by Nicklas Lidstrom, future Hall of Fame defenseman.

He traced Lidstrom's path with a marker; it left marks in pretty much a narrow oval on one side of the rink. Then he projected a young defenseman's shift, filmed from a similar angle, and traced that, leaving zig-zag lines all over the board.

"Sometimes it takes a while," Pellerin said. "They try to do more. Sometimes, you have to do less."

With Anders Nilsson and Kenny Reiter making big saves, and with contributions from the forwards in both ends of the rink, the team has put together its best stretch in over two years and its best 13-game defensive stretch in almost as long.

"We're playing hard and smart," Donovan said.

When Donovan was first with the Sound Tigers in December before returning to the NHL for a stint, "We had hard-working guys, but sometimes we weren't working smart. Now we've really come together."